Aryna Sabalenka survived a marathon match with countless twists and turns in New Haven on Wednesday, eventually upending the defending champion and again reaching the late rounds on the US hard courts.
Sabalenka, who stormed to the Cincinnati semifinals last week, won 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 in two hours and 48 minutes despite blowing a match point in the second set, losing a 4-0 lead in the deciding frame and tallying 62 unforced errors.
The match turned a seemingly endless number of times. Sabalenka lost her serve on three consecutive occasions in the second set but later served for it, then saved three set points in the tiebreak, evening it, before losing the set. Then in the decider, she came six points from the match before losing four straight games and facing break point to go down 4-5.
“It was a crazy match. … Now I’m so tired and so happy,” Sabalenka said on-court. “Every point, I started to get crazier and crazier. I was so angry at myself.”
The anger from her 4-0 collapse eventually dissipated. Incredibly, the rapidly tiring Belarussian found enough in reserve to stave off 15-40 at 4-4, then forced a match point — more than an hour after her first one — shortly thereafter. Gavrilova, the No. 9 seed, mashed a forehand long, and Sabalenka had a sixth win in her last seven matches.
The statistics told an ugly story for both players. Sabalenka double faulted 15 times, including to hand back one third set break, while Gavrilova did so on 10 occasions. Sabalenka, the world No. 25, won just 44 percent of second serve points — nearly 10 points higher than Gavrilova.
Sabalenka did hit 45 winners, though she was still well underwater. But she did enough to secure a Thursday matchup with lucky loser Belinda Bencic, who beat Camila Giorgi on Tuesday.
Also in New Haven, Ekaterina Makarova survived a three-setter of her own, handing Magdalena Rybarikova a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in two hours and 13 minutes. The Russian saved six of eight break points and won more than 60 percent of second serves, far better serve numbers despite six aces for Rybarikova.
Makarova lost her serve on consecutive occasions in the first set, but held her last nine service games to reach the quarterfinals. Rybarikova, meanwhile, put fewer than half of first serves in play in the final two frames.
